


Homecoming

by SageSloth



Category: Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Fantastic Four (Movies 2005-2007), Fantastic Four (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fantastic Four - Freeform, Gen, Hurt Johnny, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Johnny hurt, Torture, alien - Freeform, black hole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-05-19 18:09:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19361962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SageSloth/pseuds/SageSloth
Summary: In a freak accident, Johnny and Dr Doom are pulled into an artificial black hole and disappear. A year later Johnny crash lands back to earth, but is he the same person he was before? A re-write from my Fanfiction.net account.





	1. Chapter 1

The lab was dark, lit only by screens and flashing lights on monitors. The cup of coffee in Sue’s hand was too hot to hold, but she gripped it tight. She deserved the pain, she thought, even enjoyed it a little. When she finally put it down next to Reed she felt her palm start to cool and the pain inside her heart return once again.

‘Thanks, honey,’ Reed said, not taking his eyes from the screen in front of him.

‘You’re welcome,’ She realised that was the most they had spoken in several days, but did nothing to keep the conversation going.

She left the lab quickly, brushing her knuckles against her still hot palm, and found Ben in the kitchen buttering a piece of bread. By the look of things, he was putting together a sandwich with various vegetables, meats and condiments.

He turned when he heard her, ‘Hey, Suzie.’

She flashed a weak smile, but as soon as it appeared it was gone again and she crossed the kitchen into the open-plan living room and sat on the floor in front of the large window. The transparent glass covered almost the entire wall, providing an unobstructed view of the bustling city below. It had never felt so empty, she realised, than it had the last year. Everyone went on with their business, laughing, fighting, loving. Everyone had moved on, except them. How could things ever be the same?

Ben watched her with careful eyes. He’d learnt the hard way that if he held on too tight things broke, and that applied to people’s hearts too. Abandoning his sandwich for the moment, he followed her across the room and knelt beside her with a tired groan.

Her blue eyes were fixed on something intangible in the distance, way past the city and all the people that lived there. Perhaps even past all the people that lived.

‘It’s not the same, huh?’ Ben sighed, feeling his stone heart throb.

She shook her head and sniffed, ‘It never will be.’ Her voice broke into a sob and she pressed her hands to her face, burying her tears.

Ben pulled her gently to him, knowing that his exterior didn’t make the softest pillow, and rocked her as softly as he could. She didn’t seem to mind, pressed her cheek against his chest as he body convulsed and jerked as she cried.

Reed didn’t say anything as he watched his wife cry. There was nothing he could say. For months now all he did was work and watch his family break apart. He was never useless, there was never nothing he could do. He was a scientist. An inventor. He found solutions to unsolvable problems even before it became his vocation.

But this…

How do you fix this?

An alarm blared suddenly from inside the lab and Ben and Sue turned quickly, finding Reed in the kitchen.

‘What’s that?’ Ben asked.

Reed’s face had paled and he turned on his heel and ran back to the lab. Ben and Sue scrambled to their feet and followed him.

‘Reed!’ Sue cried, ‘What is that?’

Reed’s fingers clacked against a large keyboard, the screen above him showing a radar with a wide red blip pulsing across a map of the city.

‘Something’s entering the atmosphere,’ Reed said with a grave face.

‘You mean from space?’ Ben queried.

‘No, from the bathroom! Yes, of course from space!’ Reed snapped.

‘Is it Kree?’ Sue asked.

Reed shook his head, ‘No, but it’s fast.’

‘Hostile?’ Ben’s shoulders started to rise.

‘Not sure,’ Reed started to type in sums to further analyse the radar, ‘the heat signature is—’ his head jerked up suddenly and he broke away from the desk.

‘What?’ Sue asked, ‘Reed, what is it?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Do you think it could be—’

‘No.’

‘But what if—’

‘Sue!’ Reed snapped again and then regained his composure with a cooling sigh, ‘I’m sorry, but it’s not him. It’s not Johnny.’

He almost didn’t get the name out of his mouth. It brought him physical pain to recall the one they had lost and once he had spoken he felt almost all life drain out of him, needing to brace himself against the desk.

Johnny’s name hadn’t been spoken for at least six months, half as long as the time they had spent without him. It was too painful to talk about him now. Too terrible to remember what had happened.

 

* * *

 

**1 Year ago**

_‘Victor!’ Reed screamed inside the glass tube, his voice muffled by the thick walls, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’ He banged his fists against the glass._

_‘Quiet, Richards,’ Victor snapped, hardly disconcerted, ‘You’ve always tried to hold me back. But not this time.’_

_He was right about the second part. There was no escape for Reed, the trap having been perfectly created just for him without even a tiny air hole that he could slip an appendage through. Oxygen was pumped through chambers at the top of the tube, but the openings were closed so fast and so sharply once the oxygen was pushed through that he would lose a limb if he tried to escape through them._

_Sue lay on the ground in front of Victor and his great machine, tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched the beginning of possibly the end. Ben and Johnny weren’t conscious. They had fought Victor hard but came out the losers in this instance. It was all going to wrong and all Reed could do was watch._

_Victor no longer cared about defeating the Fantastic Four, or even world dominance. He didn’t want to control the world, he wanted to end it and didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire._

_‘Please, Victor,’ Reed screamed, having resorted to begging, ‘don’t do this! The revenge you’re looking for doesn’t lie in your death or that of anyone else’s. You need help.’_

_‘Save it!’ Victor growled, ‘the time for talk has long passed. It is time now to welcome the dawn of a new age.’_

_He pushed one of the buttons on the size of the large ring in the centre of the room and it started to turn. Slowly at first and then so fast, you could hardly make out which way was up. In the centre of the rings there formed a tiny little circle of light and as Reed watched in horror it started to feed._

_The black hole drew in everything in its reach; paper, furniture, pipes from the walls. Sue felt herself starting to slide forward and scrambled away, digging her nails into the floor and reaching for anything that she could hold onto, but it was no use._

_‘Sue!’ Reed screamed and pressed himself up against the glass wall, but he couldn’t get to her/_

_Sue’s body was dragged up into the air from the ground and towards the black hole, but before it could swallow her up a bright flame burst through the air and threw her sideways. She crashed into a desk and tumbled to the ground as the flame wrapped itself around Victor and both were consumed by the black hole._

_‘Johnny, no!’ Reed felt his insides break as he screamed harder than his body was capable._

_Sue pulled herself up to her feet and watched in horror as the circle shone brightly and disappeared. Johnny was gone._


	2. Chapter 2

‘How do you know?’ Sue cried, grabbing Reed’s arm, ‘How do you know it’s not him?’

‘He fell into an artificial black hole,’ Reed said, ‘We still don’t know where normal black holes lead to, never mind ones that Victor creates.’

The alarm blared louder and faster.

‘What’s happening now?’ Ben asked.

‘Whatever it is, it’s crashing.’ Reed answered, watching the screen.

‘Where?’ Sue asked.

‘Central Park.’

Sue’s hair swished through the air as she ran from the lab.

‘Why is it always a landmark?’ Ben sighed before he and Reed followed Sue out.

The three raced to the park, avoiding paparazzi and adoring fans on their way, and looked around, ‘It should have crashed landed about here,’ Reed said, scanning the sky.

Sue looked up at the clouds, clutching her hands together just under her chin. All she could think about was him. Despite a year of false hope and heart-breaking disappointment, she couldn’t stop herself from going there. She needed him. He was her younger brother and they had always looked after each other. When their father went to prison Johnny was there. When their mother died he was there too. But now he was gone too and she felt that she had lost a part of herself the day she lost him.

‘Well, I don’t see anything,’ Ben shrugged, ‘Maybe the machine was wrong or…’ He stopped as he heard gasps and chatter from the crowd. He looked up and there in the sky was a ball of white hot fire, shattering through the clouds like a bullet through paper, ‘Holy cow.’

‘Get out of the park!’ Reed cried and the crowd disbanded in panic.

The three of them ran from the predicted crash site and took refuge behind a hot dog stand. Ben wrapped his arms around a group of kids whose parents were too far to get to and Sue threw up a force field as wide as she could manage around the site as fire collided with the ground and cracked open the earth.

After a few moments of silence, Sue lowered her fields and looked up. Her legs carried her forward towards the rubble and away from Reed as he reached to pull her back.

‘Sue, what are you doing?’ he hissed.

He could easily have reached her if he wanted, but he was hesitant and let her go, being sure to follow close behind just in case.

She couldn’t hear him anyway. She had to know. That was all. Just rule it out either way. It was either him or it wasn’t but she couldn’t rest until she knew. The earth was on fire as she approached and as she looked down into the trench she felt her heart explode.

‘Johnny!’ She sobbed and fell down to her knees, ‘Oh, God,’ her voice trembled, her throat so swollen she could barely breathe.

The body of her little brother was sprawled out in the middle of the crash site He was still wearing his Fantastic Four suit, but other than that he was everything he never had been. His clothes were ripped and dirty, the hair on his head and face was longer than he usually let it grow. He looked older. Ill. He looked like their father.

Sue couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Until she saw his finger twitch. She leapt forward into the ditch and collapsed beside him, ‘Johnny, wake up!’ she begged, ‘speak to me, please!’

He had a pulse, although weak. He was alive.

Reed stopped just short of the crash site, ‘I—I don’t…Johnny…’ his dry mouth struggled for words. It wasn’t possible. Johnny was pulled into a black hole. How could he just _fall_ back to earth and where had he been?

Ben wasn’t far behind, once he’d returned the frightened children to their families, and looked down at his favourite pain in the ass. Johnny’s eyes were closed, his mouth a little open and his breathing shallow. His usually so happy face was tainted by pain and Ben could hardly bear to look at him.

Reed put a hand on Sue’s shoulder and she shuddered, scared someone was going to take her brother away again, ‘We have to get him back to the lab,’ Reed said.

She nodded but stayed rooted to the spot, taking her brother’s hand in hers and clutching it to her chest.

‘Ben,’ Reed said, ‘can you…’

Ben nodded, understanding his friend’s request without the need for words. He moved carefully down into the ditch beside Sue and crouched down, ‘Suzie,’ he said, looking at her hands, ‘we gotta get him out.’

She was trembling all over like a little dog and not even Ben’s great hands could still her, ‘I thought he was gone,’ she whimpered as Ben helped her to her feet. She clambered out of the ditch and fell into her husband’s arms, ‘I thought he was gone!’ she collapsed into a heap of tears and Reed held her close, stroking her hair and shushing her softly.

Ben turned back to Johnny, not wanting to touch him through fear he would break, ‘What have you gone and got yourself into, matchstick?’ He slipped his hands beneath Johnny’s back and lifted him up into his arms.

As Ben carried Johnny out of the ditch his body remained still, his limbs and head hanging loosely from Ben’s arms. Sue rushed back to him and stroked his hair and face as Ben carried him through the crowd of police that had gathered.

‘What happened to him, Reed?’ She asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Reed admitted, ‘But we’ll find out and we’ll fix it. I promise.’

As they returned home and Johnny was put under observation in Reed’s lab a thought struck him. If Johnny was back, did that mean Victor could come back too? Reed shuddered quietly and continued with his tests, trying not to think of what catastrophe awaited them.

After he had hooked him up to various monitors and taken samples of blood, skin and external matter, Reed ducked further into his lab and began his tests while Sue sat by her brother’s bedside and watched him sleep. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him, being without him for even a moment ever again. The last year had been too hard, too painful, but the worst part about it was not knowing. If she could have mourned him properly she might have been able to begin recovering from the loss, but she didn’t know if he was alive or dead. If she assumed he was dead that would have been like giving up on him, and she would never do that.

A few hours passed and Sue kept her vigil strong, holding, stroking and kissing Johnny’s hand and waiting for him to wake up and make it all better. A few more hours passed and she felt her eyelids start to drop. Her gaze lowered from Johnny’s face to his ear to the pillow and soon enough she found herself pressing her face to the bed and snoring softly.

She hasn’t spent much of the last year sleeping and so when she managed to fall asleep there was no stopping her. When she woke up she found herself staring at the floor with her forehead against the edge of the bed. She was still sitting in the same chair, but something was different. Her hand closed around thin air and she looked up, panic rushing through her. She sat bolt upright and found the bed in front of her empty, the pillow cold. As she stood up the chair squealed across the floor and she let out a little yelp.

Johnny was stood by the window and she froze in shock when she saw him. He turned around when he heard her, his expression relaxed and happy. Like nothing had happened. When he looked at her he smiled.

That was what she had been waiting for. Searching for. He smiled and she fell to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

‘Sue!’ Johnny cried and lunged towards her.

She was kneeling on the floor, hand over her mouth, and looking up at her brother. Was she dreaming? Was this one of those false hope dreams where she thinks everything is okay and then reality crashes down all around her?

Johnny put his hand on her cheek, his bright blue eyes looking into hers.

God, had she missed those eyes!

‘Are you alright?’ he asked.

_He_ asked _her_.

‘Johnny?’ she breathed, ‘is it really you?’

He nodded, smiling that crooked little smile that always got him out of even the worst trouble, ‘Yeah.’

She cried out and wrapped her arms around him, almost knocking him backwards, ‘I thought you were dead!’ she sobbed, gasping for breath.

‘I know, I’m so sorry—’ she pulled back and slapped him around the face, ‘Uhh…ow?’

‘Don’t you ever—’ she wagged a finger at his face ‘ _ever_ fly into a black hole again!’

‘Oh yeah, I’ll try,’ he scoffed, ‘Not even a _thanks for saving my life_ or anything?’

She flung her arms around him again, ‘Thank you,’ she murmured into his neck.

‘Don’t mention it,’ he smiled, holding her close.

‘Sue,’ Reed’s voice carried far as he entered the lab, ‘Are you alright, I hear sh—’ he stopped as he came upon the siblings, ‘Johnny?’

Johnny rose to his feet, ‘Hey, it’s Stretch Dude!’

Reed didn’t say a word as he pulled Johnny into a hug. He took in a sharp breath and it came out in shudders. He could feel Johnny’s heart beating through his chest, feel the warmth of his flesh. He really was alive. Thank God. But how?

‘Woah,’ Johnny laughed and clapped Reed on the back, ‘I missed you too, bro-in-law.’

Reed released him, but couldn’t stop staring in astonishment. Sue couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face as she linked her arm in his.

‘Where’s Pebbles?’ Johnny asked.

‘I-in the kitchen,’ Reed answered and Johnny sauntered out of the room in that easy manner of his. Reed looked at his wife, ‘How?’

Sue shrugged, ‘I don’t know…I don’t really care right now either.’

Johnny swung around the door frame and hung there, catching Ben in his sights. He was standing at the counter with his back to the door and Johnny looked around for ways to prank him. There was a banana cream pie left out on the side. Presumably, Ben had unwrapped it and moved to the other side of the kitchen to find something to cut off a slice with. Johnny picked the pie up from the counter, sliding his hands under the foil cup that held the crust in place, and threw it at the back of Ben’s head. Ben ducked at exactly the right moment and the pie sailed over the top of him.

‘Damn!’ Johnny cursed and Ben whirled around, ‘You’re a lucky rock, you know that?’

Ben’s jaw fell open, ‘Kid?’ he breathed, his voice soft.

‘The one and only,’ Johnny said coyly, pointing two thumbs at his chest.

‘You…’

‘Got sucked into a black hole and almost died, yeah, I know. It’s complicated—’ Ben wrapped his arms around him and squeezed, ‘Ben—Can’t breathe—’

‘Johnny? Is that you?’ Alesha said, walking into the kitchen and brushing a guiding hand over the counter.

‘It won’t be if your boyfriend doesn’t stop crushing me!’

‘Ben!’ Alesha snapped and Ben released Johnny immediately, seemingly coming back to earth.

‘Jeez,’ Johnny rubbed his sore ribs, ‘Thanks.’

Alesha approached and hugged him gently, ‘I’m so glad you’re safe.’

‘You know we’re going to have to have a serious conversation at some point, right?’ Reed said, he and Sue entering the kitchen.

‘Alright,’ Johnny nodded, ‘Let’s do it.’

They all moved into the living room and took their seats on the couch. Sue placed herself between Reed and Johnny and Alesha sat on Ben’s lap opposite them.

‘Okay, Johnny,’ Reed said, notepad and pen prepped on his lap, ‘tell us what happened.’

‘I don’t know,’ Johnny shrugged.

‘What do you mean you don’t know?’ Reed squinted and Sue prodded him in the shoulder.

‘I can’t remember,’ Johnny held his arms out, ‘One minute I’m pushing Sue out of the way and trying to stop Victor, then…lights out. Next thing I know I wake up here and Sue’s sleeping next to me.’

‘You were gone for a year, Johnny,’ Sue said softly, ‘You don’t remember anything?’

‘Is that it?’ Johnny cried. Silence followed and he cleared his throat, ‘It’s just,’ he shrugged, ‘felt like longer.’

Reed watched him carefully and Sue stood up, holding her hand out to her brother, ‘Come on, that’s enough for now. Let’s go get you cleaned up.’

She led him up to his room, ‘It’s just you left it,’ she assured him, ‘I didn’t want to…well, you know.’ Her eyes started to well up.

Johnny smiled and pulled her into a hug, ‘Thanks.’

She hugged him back and breathed in his scent. He almost smelled the same as he used to, but something was different. There was an odd chemical smell about him, like bleach but stronger and she had to hold her breath until he released her for fear she may pass out from being so close to the fumes.

‘I’ll leave you to it then.’ She said before heading off back downstairs.

When he walked into the bathroom he locked the door immediately before moving to the sink and placing his hands down on the counter. He leaned in close to his reflection, having not seen his own face in quite some time. His light brown hair was wild, long and falling into his face, not to mention the beard he hadn’t known he was capable of growing. His skin was grey and covered in dirt or blood, he couldn’t really tell which anymore and let his eyes drift closed for a moment.

Blood, slash, blades, screams, VICTOR!

He opened his eyes and again and felt his pulse quicken. Taking his hands off of the counter, he moved away from the mirror and turned on the shower, thinking about the lie he had told. How could he not remember everything? The memories of the last year would be burned into him like scars for the rest of his life.

He shook his head as if he could shake off his thoughts and peeled his uniform off. The hot water felt good against his skin, washing off caked-on blood and dirt and making him feel more…human again.

When he got out of the shower he stood in front of the mirror again and waited for the condensation to clear. He opened the cabinet and found that, just as Sue said, all of his things were still exactly where he had left them. His toothbrush, shampoo, razor and everything else were all where they should have been. It was as if he had never left.

He quickly went about shaving off his hideous beard and brushed his hair back with some mousse. It wasn’t so bad this length.

It wasn’t just the bathroom that was untouched, his bedroom was just the same too. His bed was made, but the cleaners would have done that if he were there or not, his desk cluttered with motorcycle parts and magazines and the walls littered with taped-on pictures of cars, girls and motorcycles. The familiarity was comforting and he found himself moving to his wardrobe to fetch some clean clothes without even thinking about it.

One thing, he found, had changed. His clothes were all too small for him, his t-shirt struggling to contain his muscles. Had they always been this size? Was it him who had changed that much? He brushed the thought aside and moved to leave his bedroom when a wave of nausea washed over him and his vision blurred so bad he had to brace himself against the door frame to keep from falling to his knees. It was a few moments before the dizziness cleared, but once it had he shook it off and headed downstairs.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes;  
> 1) So I started this back in 2012 on my fanfiction account and never finished it, but randomly got the urge to go back and re-visit.  
> 2) I've taken bits from the comics and bits from the movies and mashed them together so suck it continuity!


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